Tagged: Physician Posts

Viewpoints from a Naturopathic Physician
One of our main values here at Liberty HealthShare is the promotion and pursuit of health. While we are here for one another through the unexpected health issues that may arise, we have also agreed to steward our bodies, first because they are gifts from God and second, because we recognize that the money that pays for our eligible medical costs comes out of our pockets and the pockets of our fellow members.
Obesity is a national epidemic, affecting more than one-third of U.S. adults. It’s not surprising that children aren’t statistically far behind in this area. Obesity contributes to a myriad of other health conditions, from heart disease to cancer, so it follows that a large part of our nation’s healthcare costs could be mitigated by focusing on the reduction of obesity alone.

August 3rd, 2017Tags:personal-responsibilityphysician-postspreventative-care

Clifford R. Stoller, MD is Board Certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and is a member of Liberty HealthShare. Having recently retired from private practice, Dr. Stoller contacted us and offered to volunteer his services in the management of spine disorders. In this guest physician post, Dr. Stoller draws particular attention to the pitfalls of conventional wisdom regarding back pain, a broad symptom that can lead to improper, expensive treatments, up to and including surgery.

Viewpoints from a Naturopathic Physician
Here at Liberty HealthShare, we strive to create an environment in which our members are empowered to make informed decisions about the care they pursue for themselves and their families. For example, Liberty is proud to share in eligible expenses within the realm of certain naturopathic and alternative treatments. Dr. Kendra Pearsall, NMD, is a member of our Physician Advisory Board and she shares her expertise here as part of our physician post series. The following are a few medical questions our members pose with answers from Dr. Pearsall, based in a naturopathic approach to health.

by John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Liberty HealthShare
Doctors are busy, often times and unfortunately because they are filling out forms for bureaucracies. This busyness can leave patients feeling cheated, like they are fighting for their physician’s full attention in the short amount of one-on-one time they actually get with him or her.
So how can you get what you need and steward yours and your fellow members’ resources well when you often have barely any time to speak to the doctor?

May 4th, 2017Tags:personal-responsibilityphysician-postshealthcare-costs

Elaina George, MD
Physician Advisory Board Chairman, Liberty HealthShare
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the American healthcare system has undergone significant changes that affect everyone, whether they are patients or not. The price of health insurance and out of pocket costs have continued to rise while access has fallen. In fact, the US healthcare system remains the most expensive in the world, and yet it continues to rank last compared to other western countries.
Additionally, there has been a decrease in the number of private physicians, community and rural hospitals have closed, and prescription drug costs have continued to rise. As a result, Americans continue to pay more for prescription medication than patients in other countries do.

John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Liberty HealthShare
We are entering what is commonly called allergy season, so now is probably a good time to talk about managing allergies and asthma. In addition to my responsibilities as chief medical officer of Liberty HealthShare, I am an allergist/immunologist and pediatric pulmonologist, so this subject is comfortably within my area of expertise.

March 3rd, 2017Tags:healthcare-costsfreedompersonal-responsibilityphysician-postsself-pay-patient

John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Liberty HealthShare
Advancements in technology bring costs down in most every sector of the economy. Consider that computers, which used to take up an entire floor of a building, now fit in the palm of your hand, and with exponentially higher processing power than in the past. Yet all this increased computing power comes to us far cheaper each year than the one before.

February 9th, 2017Tags:freedomhealthcare-costspersonal-responsibilityphysician-postspatient-tips

John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Liberty HealthShare
The last several decades have brought great advances in the science of medicine, but the art of medicine has been increasingly abandoned. However, healthsharing—if taken to heart by each and every Liberty HealthShare member and recognized for what it is—can empower the art of medicine toward rebirth. If you go to the effort of identifying a good primary care doctor for yourself and your family, you, your fellow members, and the healthcare community at large will be well served.

January 11th, 2017Tags:physician-postspersonal-responsibilitynew-membershealthcare-costschristian-valuesfreedommedical-cost-sharing

ohn Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Liberty HealthShare
To our recently enrolled members, welcome, and congratulations on your effort to escape the third-party healthcare payment system where somebody else pays the bill, e.g., an insurance company, an employer, or the government. This transition is not necessarily easy because most folks have been in the third-party payment system for so long that they have forgotten (or never experienced) what it’s like to make medical care choices based on both quality and price .

December 12th, 2016Tags:freedompersonal-responsibilityphysician-postsself-pay-patienthealthcare-costs

John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Liberty HealthShare
In an era of constantly growing government, what can physicians and patients do to avoid getting abused and poorly treated by our politicized medical system? The answer is simple: NOT what physicians and patients have done for decades.
What physicians did wrong was to stop advocating for their patient’s finances. What patients did wrong was to stop asking how much their care will cost. After all, why bother to ask if some faceless, distant insurance company, or the government, is footing the bill?

November 3rd, 2016Tags:personal-responsibilityphysician-postsself-pay-patienthealthcare-costs

John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, National Coalition of Healthcare Sharing Ministries
As members of the Liberty HealthShare community, each of us has the responsibility to steward the resources of the entire membership. In order for healthcare sharing to function the way it should, we are duty-bound to try and save money whenever we access the health system. And let’s not be naïve: the health system is out to take all the money it can.

October 7th, 2016Tags:cost-reductionhealthcare-costspersonal-responsibilitypre-notificationphysician-posts

Getting the most medical care for your money
John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Thirty-to-Fifty percent of medical procedures and tests are wasteful. As members of a Christian healthcare sharing ministry, each of us is obliged to think conscientiously about the choices we make regarding medical expenses. Certainly, if I ask my community to share in my medical expense, I ought to work very hard to make sure that the expense is reasonable.

September 7th, 2016Tags:medical-billsphysician-postspatient-tipshealthcare-costsself-pay-patient

by John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Liberty HealthShare
You have probably noticed that prescription medications are extremely affordable in some cases and terribly expensive in others. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. Some drug prices benefit from free markets and generally free international trade, with prices dropping to nearly zero (think Walmart and all the pharmacies that followed them with their $4 low prices). These days, some antibiotics are even free. Don’t believe me? Just Google it. But for every cheap or free prescription, there are just as many or more astronomically expensive drugs out there.

Giving, not receiving, is what Liberty HealthShare is about.
by John Hunt, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Liberty HealthShare is creating a system in which voluntarily sharing your resources with others is not limited to your immediate geographic surroundings. Our community is aided by the internet, so you can help others in need anywhere deal with the misfortune of having an illness or injury at a time in history when health care costs are so hyperinflated that the costs are often as destructive as the diseases themselves. In addition to helping ill members with such financial struggles, you can now be part of a process of fixing the problems that caused health care prices to become so ridiculously high.

June 7th, 2016Tags:health-and-wellnessphysician-postspreventative-care

Viewpoints From A Naturopathic Physician
by Kendra Pearsall, N.M.D.
Medicine is and always has been more art than science. The information provided here is not to be treated as individual medical advice but rather a starting point from which to assess your own health practices. What is best for you is what restores and or maintains good health. Read with an open mind and consult with your personal physician on any changes you may want to make.
I offer this article as a reminder to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism where it comes to conventional thinking (the kind usually passed down from academics and bureaucrats) that attempts to treat us all the same way.

May 4th, 2016Tags:preventative-carephysician-postsself-pay-patientmedical-cost-sharinghealthcare-costshealth-and-wellness

Viewpoints from a Naturopathic Physician
by Kendra Pearsall, N.M.D.
People tell us their number one reason for joining Liberty HealthShare is the cost savings. Members report they are saving thousands over previous years' total healthcare expenses. Cost savings is one of the many reasons I LOVE being a member, and for that reason and more, I tell everyone I know about this wonderful program. I asked Liberty HealthShare's Executive Director, Dale Bellis, how Liberty is able to keep membership fees low.

by Elaina George, MD
Ear infections are one of the most common problems for which people seek medical attention. The best treatments for the various types of ear infections depend on the underlying cause.

By John Hunt, MD
Pediatric Allergist/Immunologist and Pediatric Pulmonologist
Allergy season will be here before you know it, and if you're one of the many who suffers from seasonal allergies, you might be dreading it. Fortunately, you don't have to just let your symptoms roll over you, leaving you feeling like you've been hit by a truck. There are many affordable and easy ways to mitigate the sneezing, itchy eyes, runny nose, and other common symptoms of allergies.

by John Hunt, MD, FAAAAI
When a child with chronic respiratory symptoms gets diagnosed with asthma, often parents will think, “Finally, I know what is wrong!” Unfortunately, that’s a mistaken thought. Asthma is not a diagnosis. Although there is now a name attached, you still don’t yet know what is causing the respiratory problems.
This is important, so I will reiterate it: asthma is not a diagnosis. Rather, asthma is dysfunction in your child’s airways that can be caused by any one or more of several dozen very different potential causes. If your child has asthma, it is a reason to go searching for the underlying cause.

December 13th, 2015Tags:health-and-wellnessphysician-postspreventative-care

by Elaina George, MD
The winter months increase the chance of illness. Two contributing factors are limited sun exposure and close proximity to others who are sick. There are plenty of natural steps you can take to decrease your risk of illness. Here are several:

Viewpoints from a Naturopathic Physician
by Dr. Kendra Pearsall, N.M.D.
Member of the LHS Physician Review Board
An estimated 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease or dementia and two-thirds of these are women. One in three seniors (those 65 and older) die of dementia. Your odds of being diagnosed with dementia after 65 are high UNLESS you undertake preventative measures to protect and preserve your brain.

Viewpoints from a Naturopathic Physician
What Every Woman Needs To Know About Mammograms.
Mammograms are x-rays of the breast that are used in screening for breast cancer. The current conventional medical recommendations are that all women aged 50-74 should get a mammogram every two years in order to screen for breast cancer. However, one of the largest and longest studies of mammography to date, involving 90,000 women followed for 25 years, found that mammograms have absolutely NO impact on breast cancer mortality. In other words, the death rate from breast cancer was virtually identical between those who received an annual mammogram and those who did not. In fact, the latest research shows that in addition to having little to no diagnostic value, mammograms can actually cause a number of problems: